My faithful K9 companion has passed on……

It is with great sadness that I must report that we had to put Hot Shot down last night, 11/20/12 at about 11:00 pm. He was fine until Monday evening when all of a sudden he lost his appetite, which had always been exceptionally hardy as most of y’all know. Tuesday he was increasingly lethargic and wouldn’t eat or drink but would still wag his tail a little. By Tuesday night he went out into the front yard, laid down in a favorite spot and would hardly move except to raise his head a little to pant.  His gums and tongue where almost completely white and the vet we called speculated that because he had so many tumors he probably had one his liver that had ruptured and he was bleeding out .  After camping in the yard and snuggling with the old boy for a while it was clear he wasn’t going to make it and my wife helped me make the difficult decision.  The vet came to our house and Hot Shot passed peaceably in the front yard with me holding  and hugging my faithful old border buddy .
Post mortem revealed exactly what the vet had speculated.  Something inside him had ruptured filling his insides with blood.  He wouldn’t have made it through the night.
I can’t say anything else  except I sure love him and miss him already, we sure had some great adventures………..

The first time I met Hot Shot was in 2006 on the border.  I didn’t know his name or who he belonged to, if anybody.  I just new he was a sweet, exceptionally smart and friendly fellow who wandered into camp one day. Little did I know that a couple of years later he would do the same thing and I would have to take the old boy home.

Hot Shot and I always liked to go Support the BORDER PATROL FALLEN OFFICERS SCHOLARSHIP RIDE .  He went with me me three of the four years I owned him:

And each time we traveled the southwest we made a point to stop at the National Border Patrol Museum in El Paso, Texas.  The curator’s husband was one of the Border Patrol’s first K9 trainers.  She always loved to see Hot Shot!

The young “PittWeiler” above received many hours of valuable training from old Hot Shot.  They were best buddies.

He loved the Veteran’s Day Parade!

And he loved Christmas!

Our last trip together was just a couple of weeks ago.  We went to the Border Patrol Fallen Officer’s Ride one last time.  He loved it!

Then we headed back to the border in Campo, California to his old stompin’ grounds one last time.  He always kept his eye on the border.

Needless to say things around here will never be the same.  Thanks to all the many good people who loved and cared for this old boy.  He’s gone to dog heaven now, patrolling the pearly gates.

I love you, Hot Shot.-C1